The Goliath Code (The Alpha Omega Trilogy)

by Suzanne Leonhard

  With a violent roar, David leapt over the table and took Ben by the throat with one hand. “I am the next evolution of mankind!” he bellowed.

  Ben struggled against David’s grip. His face puckered and started to turn purple.

  I rushed to my brother’s side. “That’s enough, David!”

  David ignored me, lifting Ben off the ground. “How do you like the Goliath guns now, Ben?”

  I grabbed my brother’s arm, trying to pry him loose, but it felt like trying to bend solid steel. I looked around at the soldiers in the room. “Do something!” I shouted. But the minute one stepped forward, the armed guard standing nearby threw the bolt on his weapon. The message was clear. Don’t interfere.

  Ben’s eyes were bulging. His feet were thrashing. He was clawing at David’s hands, desperate for air.

  Milly screamed. “Stop, David! Stop!”

  I looked around for a weapon, finally picking up my lunch tray and slamming it across the back of my brother’s head. It broke into several pieces and didn’t leave a mark on him, but it did get his attention. He turned to look at me.

  “STOP!” I screamed up into his face.

  His smile froze my blood. “All right, Sera. I’ll stop.” With one twist of his wrist he snapped Ben’s neck and tossed him against the far wall.

  I stood there motionless, forgetting how to breathe. Milly ran to where Ben lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. She checked for a pulse, then I saw her shoulders slump. She looked back at me with tears flooding her eyes and shook her head. There was nothing she could do. Ben was dead.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I sat on my cot in the dark, my knees pulled up to my chest, unable to cry. Watching my brother kill our friend had shattered me into a million pieces. Only rage remained.

  Kind, gentle Milly had shown strength I never imagined, but I wondered if her heart could withstand this much tragedy. She had been unresponsive when I last saw her. I’d clung to her afterward, fighting separation, but in the end they’d pulled her away from me. We’d been escorted to our individual rooms. I had to get to her—get her out of Ellensburg—and, to do that, I needed Micah’s help.

  The door clicked open, the light turned on, and the very last person I wanted to see walked into my room, smiling—or, should I say, half smiling. The left side of the praetor’s face wasn’t working so well. He had a four-inch gash riding up his left cheekbone, held together with a thick black row of stitches. The resulting lopsided grin made him look like a creepy drama mask.

  I did that to him, I thought. And I was going to do a whole lot worse.

  David followed him into the room, his head hanging low, but that didn’t fool me. He hadn’t looked remorseful or ashamed after he’d killed Ben. He’d looked satisfied. I turned away now, refusing to acknowledge him.

  “Poor sweet Sera,” the praetor said. “To see what you have seen today would break any mortal heart.”

  He held out a handkerchief to me. I glared at him. “Unless that comes with a gun I’m not interested.”

  “Manners, Sera,” the praetor warned. His misshapen smile returned. “I was delighted to hear that you and your friends had found Mr. Odette in the forest. His tracking device made it much easier to find your little hideaway in the mine.”

  David snorted at me and I clenched my jaw. Not only had the praetor mutilated Tim, he’d used him against us.

  “Now,” the praetor continued. “David has expressed his deep sorrow for losing his temper and killing your friend today. I told him that it can take time for these things to be forgiven. But he is your brother. So perhaps—”

  “That monstrosity is not my brother,” I seethed. “He’s a disgusting abomination.”

  David drew himself to his new full height and glowered at me with fiendish blue eyes. “Careful, Sera. I’m not as easily abused as I used to be.”

  I leapt to my feet, heedless of his threatening stance. “The only place you were ever abused was in your own sick mind!” I shouted back at him. “You made the decision to be a victim a long time ago, David, and you’ve done your damnedest to live up to it!”

  “And you’re such a saint?” he fired back, circling me. “Tell me, dear sister, how many soldiers have you murdered in the name of patriotism?”

  “I was protecting you and the others!” I shouted back. “And how did you repay me? By throwing us to our enemies the moment you caught wind of something better! We lost everything because of you, everything! And you couldn’t care less! You’re no brother of mine,” I snarled. “I have a family—and you are not a part of it!”

  “Well, now your precious family is minus one.”

  I curled my fingers into claws and lunged at his face. I’d tear his tongue out before I’d let one more foul word slither out of his monstrous mouth.

  David brushed off my attack. He grabbed me by the throat. He lifted me off my feet and stared into my bulging eyes. “The war is over, Sera,” he sneered into my face. “You lose.”

  I fought and kicked. It felt like striking a brick wall.

  “Now, children,” the praetor chastised. “Am I going to have to call a time out for the both of you? Put your sister down, David. Do it gently,” he added.

  David hesitated, but then did as he was told.

  I choked and coughed and fell back against the wall. My father was right. Something else had been activated within David, something other than size. His strength was inhuman.

  “I have come to give you some news,” the praetor said to me. “Your friend Milly Odette does not carry the Goliath code in her genome.”

  Relief flooded through me. “Then let her go.” It was too much to hope for, but I could ask.

  David laughed. “You’re so stupid, Sera.”

  The praetor flashed his lopsided smile and shook his head. “Everybody has a job, my dear. If Milly won’t fit into my Goliath army, then she must fit somewhere else. And I don’t think she is Europa Guard material, do you? But she is a comely young woman. She will make a welcome companion for soldiers so far from their homes. Our men do get so lonely at the front.”

  I shook with anger. “I’m going to kill you.”

  The praetor clicked his tongue. “I am sorry to disappoint you again, Sera, but you, on the other hand, are perfect for my army. So you won’t be using all that venomous rage against me. You will be using it for me. Tonight, we will activate your Goliath Code.”

  Fear seized my stomach. “I want to see Micah,” I blurted out.

  “Micah?” David snarled.

  The praetor appeared surprised, then he laughed. “Micah Abrams? Isn’t that the young man you had me execute last spring?”

  “Don’t play games with me. I know you’re holding him here.”

  The praetor shook his head at David. “I am telling you, it is so hard to find reliable executioners these days.”

  David clenched his teeth and cracked his knuckles. Along with every other foul thing about my brother, his hatred for Micah had only magnified.

  “Alas, dear Sera, your little Jew friend is not here.”

  Not here? Micah hadn’t been captured? This news filled me with an overwhelming combination of joy and sadness; Micah wasn’t within David’s reach, but he wasn’t within mine, either.

  “No matter. I’m sure your brother will find him for us.”

  David leered at me. “I can’t wait.”

  “Good luck,” I taunted. “You may be strong, David, but I’m willing to bet a bullet will put you down just like any other animal.”

  He grabbed for me again.

  “Enough!” the praetor shouted. “Your sister needs her rest. The transformation can be quite…demanding.” He flashed me his twisted smile. “Until tonight.” He pivoted and left the room.

  With one final leer David followed after him. “See you later, sis.”

  The door closed and locked, and I dropped down on my cot, the last vestiges of hope pouring out of me. So, they wanted to turn me into a monster like my brother,
forced to do the praetor’s bidding. I preferred death. I wished I could stop my heart from beating.

  Why not? Why continue living in this desolate world when everybody I loved had been taken from me?

  I looked frantically around the room for a weapon. I found one in the wooden frame of my cot. I kicked at one of the legs. It splintered into a wooden shank. Hands shaking, I got down on my knees and held the jagged tip to my throat. I would not become the praetor’s toy.

  “One quick thrust, Sera,” I coached myself. I swallowed hard and lifted my chin.

  The image of Hilda, praying with a sword poised over her head, pulled my eyes open. Hilda had been calm in the face of her own death. I’d envied her faith. It had freed her from fear.

  The truth will set you free.

  Micah’s words the night before came back to me as soft as a gentle whisper. Suddenly, I no longer felt alone in the room.

  “But can faith bring Ben back? Can it save Milly? Will it prevent me from becoming like my brother?” Tears flooded my eyes. “I’m tired, worn out by this ugly world. I’ve tried to do good. I’ve tried to be strong. But I’m surrounded by enemies, and I don’t know what to do.” I looked up at the ceiling, tears streaming down my face. “I’m told You can set me free. That something good can come from all this destruction. I want to keep going—to keep fighting. But I can’t do it alone.” I bowed my head. “Help me. If You’re really there…help me.”

  My door clicked open again. I rose to my feet, clenching the makeshift weapon in my hand.

  “Sera?” my father called softly.

  The glow of the moon illuminated him limping through the door toward me. I tossed the jagged piece of wood to the floor and rushed into his arms.

  “Sera, I’m so sorry,” he rasped. I cried against his chest.

  “It’s okay, dad. It’s going to be all right.”

  He held me tighter. “You’ve become so strong, so brave. Your mother would be so proud of you.”

  “I miss her,” I sobbed.

  “I miss her, too,” he whispered.

  “I was terrible to her.”

  “She knew you loved her. Her choices made it hard on all of us.”

  I pulled back from him. It was time to tell the truth. “Dad. About Mom—”

  “David told me what happened at the church.”

  “No. I lied.”

  He looked into my face. “What are you talking about?”

  My chin quivered. “She didn’t fall through the floor.”

  “Then what happened?”

  I took a breath and told my father what I had never told another living soul. “She was taken. By a bright white beam of light coming down from the sky.”

  My father smiled and shook his head. “Sera—”

  “The light poured through her and around her. And she was singing. She was…”

  Suddenly, the words to the song my mother had been singing in the church, the words I hadn’t been able to understand at the time, came rushing into my mind like a flood. You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals, for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood.

  “Sera, the mind does crazy things to us when we’re under stress.”

  “I didn’t imagine it.” I dashed at the tears on my face. “Other people saw the light take their families, too. Some of them think it was an enemy attack. Some of them think it was aliens. Mom…she went to church, and—”

  “No, no, Sera. Don’t do this. Your mom allowed herself to be manipulated by a group of people who made her think she needed something special to go to heaven. Religion, deities, beliefs about the afterlife, they all play on our natural fear of death. Faith is for cowards.”

  I smiled, thinking of Hilda and Doctor Reinkann. “Some of the bravest people I know are Christians, Dad. Their faith doesn’t weaken them. It gives them strength. It sets them free.”

  It occurred to me that if Micah was right and God was in charge of everything, then He was in charge of what was about to happen to me, too. I simply needed to let go, like Hilda had done, and trust Him.

  Like my brother’s transformation, my procedure would be overseen by my father, which meant there was a good chance that I wouldn’t end up like Tim or Alvin, that I’d turn out strong and powerful like David. But, unlike David, my transformation could be used for a greater purpose.

  “After you activate my Goliath Code, I’m going to kill the praetor.”

  My father’s eyes locked with mine. “It won’t be that easy. The Biotat they’re going to give you is filled with nucleic acid robots—nubots—programmed to control impulses in the brain. Those vitamin shots David’s getting? It’s a scopolamine derivative, used to render a person susceptible to suggestion. Stanislov is programming the Goliaths for something.”

  “Then I won’t get the Biotat.”

  “Then you’ll be executed.”

  I closed my eyes, fighting despair. It seemed my transformation would serve no real purpose after all. “Then I choose death.”

  “Or…”

  I looked up at him.

  “I have an idea,” he said. “It’s something I wanted to try with David, but he was so desperate for the procedure I was afraid he might alert the praetor.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He gave me a steady look. “You’re going to have to trust me.”

  I couldn’t stop my legs from shaking. I sat on the long gurney wearing a large white hospital gown. My hair had been pulled back into a ponytail and heart monitor sensors had been taped to my chest. Complicated, beeping equipment filled the small, brightly lit room.

  My attention kept wandering to the leather restraints peeking out from beneath the gurney’s sheet. Would they be using those on me?

  The praetor stood nearby, observing. David was there, too, brooding by the door. My rage at them had been temporarily replaced with mind-numbing fear.

  My father wore a white lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck. “Okay, Sera.” His professional tone and expression only made me more nervous. “Are you ready?”

  David snorted. “There’s no getting ready for this.” He sneered at me. “It’s gonna hurt.”

  “What’s the matter, David?” I jabbed back. “Worried that your perfection is about to be trumped? Soon you’ll be just another face in the crowd. High school all over again.”

  He smirked, but I could tell I’d wounded him. “I’ll say goodbye to Milly for you.”

  With that parting shot he left the room.

  My dad had to take hold of me to keep me from flying off the gurney. “I should have let Lem Richmond blow you away at the drop zone!” I screamed after him. “I’d rather have a million Bens than a brother like you!”

  “Children, children,” the praetor chided. “My goodness, Jason. Is this what I can look forward to from your brood? Every day will be like Hercules and Athena duking it out on Mount Olympus.”

  My father looked into my eyes to steady me. I took a breath and tried to calm my racing heart.

  “Praetor Stanislov,” Dad said, “you can tell them to begin filming now.”

  The praetor hit a switch near the door and the wall-sized mirror opposite me illuminated, revealing several people standing in a room on the other side, some with cameras. The praetor documented all his experiments.

  My father moved in front of me to take my vitals. He listened to my heart and then reached around with his stethoscope to check my lungs. “I’m going to be starting an IV in a moment,” he said to me. “Let’s just get your pulse first.”

  Our eyes locked. He squeezed my hand so hard I almost cried out.

  “I trust our subject is ready, Doctor Donner?” the praetor inquired.

  I swallowed hard and nodded.

  “She’s ready,” he replied.

  “Please proceed with the Biotat,” the praetor said.

  My father pulled the tattoo machine toward my side of the gurney. “Grab the hand bar,” he told me.

  I hes
itated.

  “Sera,” he said firmly. “Grab the bar.”

  “Is there a problem?” the praetor asked.

  My father turned and smiled at him. “No problem.” He gave me an urgent look. “Take hold of the hand bar.”

  My palms sweating, I swallowed hard, thrust my arm into the machine and grabbed the bar. I squeezed my eyes shut as the needle went into action. Tears of panic burned behind my eyelids.

  It was over in seconds. I removed my arm from the machine and stared at the neat black mark on the back of my hand. It looked like a bar code on a box of cookies. I tried not to imagine thousands of tiny nubots racing through my veins to take over my brain.

  “You okay?” my father asked.

  I nodded.

  “Lie back, please.”

  This was it. In two days, I would wake up completely transformed. Would I be like Tim or David? Both options were equally terrifying. But, if Micah was right and God did exist, then this was all part of His plan.

  I laid back on the gurney and trusted in the will of the Father.

  END OF BOOK ONE

  Author’s Note

  As a Christian, I take God’s Word very seriously. While I’ve done my best to follow the prophecies woven through the Old and New Testaments regarding the end times, Sera and Micah’s story is fiction, so I’ve taken some creative liberties in areas where the Bible remained silent. I challenge you to seek out the original story for yourself in the sixty-six histories, essays, and letters compiled together for your convenience into one historical collection called the Bible.

  A lot of what’s happening to Sera and Micah can be found in the book of Revelation. This final book of the Bible is what some call a master course in eschatology (the study of last things); you’ll need to use other books in the Bible—especially the books of Daniel and Zechariah—to interpret all the symbolism you’ll find there. Interesting note, the book of Revelation is the only book in the Bible that offers a blessing to those that read the words aloud, hear the words, and take to heart what is written in it (Revelation 1:3).